A true passport historical treasure – Heligoland passport 1873

Recently I saw a excellent TV documentary about the now German Island of Helgoland with a portrait of Franz Schensky, the famous Helgolander photographer (1871 – 1957) enters the photographic stage again after fifty years (2007, the 50th anniversary of his death). The outstanding photographer of the past century was one of the internationally important black and white photographers and pioneers of the time. With his artistic pictorial documents, an extraordinary technique and an intuitive view for the right moment, he presented the viewer with the element “lake” and his “island” in a suggestive way, which made Helgoland world-famous.

However, Schensky’s photographic thinking did not only manifest itself in the recording of the outstanding or unusual, but he also used the camera to relate reality, events and facts to what he experienced and remembered. His photographs are confirmation and questioning at the same time, have autobiographical references and allow to reconstruct the history of the island; from the first picture of the handover ceremony of the island from England to the German Empire (1890) up to the photos of the bombed Oberland by British and American air raids during World War II and the beginning reconstruction of Helgoland (1952) form these unique photographs.

I learnt a lot about the island, which I never visited (and I am German) but would really love to do so one day. Then I remembered a conversation I had with a collector of Heligoland revenues and his brother has a super rare Heligoland passport which he allowed me to display here.

For your clarification, nowadays the island is German and is called HELGOLAND, but the island was British from 1807 to 1890 and was called HELIGOLAND. Until 1714 ownership switched several times between Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig, with one period of control by Hamburg. In August 1714, it was captured by Denmark, and it remained Danish until 1807.

On 11 September 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, HMS Carrier brought to the Admiralty the dispatches from Admiral Thomas Macnamara Russell announcing Heligoland’s capitulation to the British. Heligoland became a center of smuggling and espionage against Napoleon. Denmark then ceded Heligoland to George III of the United Kingdom by the Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814). Thousands of Germans came to Britain and joined the King’s German Legion via Heligoland.

The British annexation of Heligoland was ratified by the Treaty of Paris signed on 30 May 1814, as part of a number of territorial reallocation’s following on the abdication of Napoleon as Emperor of the French.

The prime reason at the time for Britain’s retention of a small and seemingly worthless acquisition was to restrict any future French naval aggression against the Scandinavian or German states.^[9] In the event no effort was made during the period of British administration to make use of the islands for naval purposes, partly for financial reasons but principally because the Royal Navy considered Heligoland to be too exposed as a forward base.

In 1826, Heligoland became a seaside spa and soon it turned into a popular tourist resort for the European upper-class. The island attracted artists and writers, especially from Germany and Austria who apparently enjoyed the comparatively liberal atmosphere, including Heinrich Heine and August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. More vitally it was a refuge for revolutionaries of the 1830s and the 1848 German revolution.

Britain gave up the islands to Germany in 1890 in the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty. The newly unified Germany was concerned about a foreign power controlling land from which it could command the western entrance to the militarily-important Kiel Canal, then under construction, and other naval installations in the area, and traded for it. A “grandfathering“/optant approach prevented the Heligolanders (as they were named in the British measures) from forfeiting advantages because of this imposed change of status.

Under the German Empire, the islands became a major naval base, and during the First World War the civilian population was evacuated to the mainland. The first naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Heligoland Bight, was fought nearby in the first month of the war. The islanders returned in 1918, but during the Nazi era the naval base was reactivated. Lager Helgoland, the Nazi labour camp on Alderney, was named after the island.

The area was the setting of the aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight in 1939, a result of British bombing attempts on German Navy vessels in that area. The area’s waters were frequently mined by British aircraft.

Heligoland also had military function as a sea fortress in Second World War. Completed and ready for use were the submarine bunker North sea III, the coastal artillery, an air-raid shelter system with extensive bunker tunnels and the airfield with the air force – Jagdstaffel Helgoland (April to October 1943). Forced labour of, among others, citizens of the Soviet Union was used during the construction of military installations during World War II.

On 3 December 1939, Heligoland was bombed by the Allies for the first time. The attack, by twenty four Wellington bombers of RAF Squadrons 38, 115 and 149, failed to destroy its target of German warships at anchor.

Within three days in early 1940, the Royal Navy lost three submarines in Heligoland: HMS Undine (N48) on 6 January, HMS Seahorse (98S) on 7 January and HMS Starfish on 9 January.

Shortly before the war ended in 1945, Georg Braun and Erich Friedrichs succeeded in forming a resistance group. However, shortly before they were to execute the plans, they were betrayed by two members of the group. About twenty men were arrested on 18 April 1945; fourteen of them were transported to Cuxhaven. After a short trial, five resisters were executed by firing squad at Cuxhaven-Sahlenburg on 21 April 1945.

With two waves of attacks on 18 and 19 April 1945, 1,000 aircraft of the British Royal Air Force dropped about 7,000 bombs. The majority of the population survived in the bomb shelters. 285 people were killed, including many Luftwaffenhelfer and naval auxiliaries. 128 of the casualties were anti-aircraft crew. The bomb attacks rendered the island uninhabitable, and it was evacuated.

From 1945 to 1952 the uninhabited Heligoland islands were used as a bombing range. On 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives (“Big Bang” or “British Bang”), creating one of the biggest single non-nuclear detonations in history. Though the attack was aimed at the fortifications, the island’s total destruction would have been accepted. The blow shook the main island several miles down to its base, changing its shape (the Mittelland was created).

On 20 December 1950, two students and a professor from Heidelberg – René Leudesdorff, Georg von Hatzfeld and Hubertus zu Löwenstein – occupied the off-limits island and raised various German, European and local flags. The students were arrested by the British military and brought back to the mainland. The event started a movement to restore the islands to Germany, which gained the support of the German parliament. On 1 March 1952, Heligoland was returned to German control, and the former inhabitants were allowed to return. The first of March is an official holiday on the island. The German authorities had to clear a huge amount of undetonated ammunition, landscape the main island, and rebuild the houses before it could be resettled.

Remark:
I was in contact with the Helgoland museum, asking if they have passports in their archive – but they have not. They told me since 1890 passports were never issued at the island but on the mainland. I never saw any passport with e.g. place of birth: Helgoland. There is a excellent German online source called “HELGOLAND-GENEALOGY”, established by Captain Erich Nummel-Krüss (probably related to German writer James Krüss). The site includes a death register of its citizens from 1764-1822, which might be a important source for your Genealogy research.

However, If you come along a passport issued at Helgoland / Heligoland or a German passport with birth place Helgoland, then please contact me!